MY FIRST TOURNAMENT IN CHINA

THE DAY BEFORE THE TOURNAMENT


The Fifth Traditional Wushu Tournament in Yantai was on the 24th of July. As you already know i have been practicing constantly everyday on my three forms i would compete in, BajiXiaoJia, Baji Staff, and Wingchun Simnumtao. The Day before the tournament I did some training with Clement. It was light and mainly focused on time. At night i did some more training with Jake and got an early night sleep because i planned on waking up at 5 in the morning and going to warm up with jake in the training hall. 

On the Day, the school ordered taxis to take us to the arena at 6am so we had to have breakfast at 5:40am in the dinning hall and be ready to leave by 6am. So Jake and i did some exercises around 5:10 and showered up and got ready for breakfast afterward. I guess it was nervous but i only had one hard boiled egg and a sip of some yogurt. 

The 16 competators got into the taxis and we headed out to Yantai with the Shifus in their own taxi. It took about 2 hours to get to the Arena. usually it takes an hour to get to Yantai but we went pretty far into yantai. When we arrived and went into the arena, we saw a lot of schools standing together in lines all single file. They were of course all chinese. Old chinese ladies, young chinese kids, old chinese men, all organized with matching outfits. 

Then there was our school. All foreigners, talking to each other, half of us were not even dressed yet, and all crowding behind Kathy, the headmasters wife, who translated for us. She knew the order of who is performing. I have no idea why we all had to stand in the middle of the arena next to the other schools but we were there for at least 20 minutes. During that time we found out one by one who did what first. The Tai Chi group went on first then the rest of us would go. It was not very clear but we were all too busy stretching or talking to each other trying to cool our nerves down. KAthy told me i had to do my three forms back to back...with no break! (I was not sparing against anyone. I was going to show my memorized 'forms'. One form was with a staff)  I was calm the whole time until then. I asked her how does that work, do i go out there do one form, stay out there and do the others. She had no idea and told me she will ask the other Masters. 

By now the judges where announcing each school. Well thats what we thought because each school would cheer together. When we heard Kunyushan we all Cheered then went back to our unorganized groups. Three of the Shifus from my school were performing with us as well, Master Rong, Master Sun, and Master Shao. 

There were about 300-400 other chinese competitors that were from 5 years old to 110 both guys and girls. I saw a few chinese competitors do some weapon forms and fist forms but i was focusing more on my forms and freaking out that i had to do all three back to back. 

The Tai Chi group were performing first. The judging was interesting. Two competitors would compete together. One guy would stand in a marked rectangle and the other would stand behind him in another marked rectangle and do their form. Sometimes the forms were the same and others where completely different. There where about 7 judges per section. There where only two sections going at once. 

This tournament was the smaller one out of the two Master Guo told us. The arena was not full, only about 500 people. Some students even came from our school went to watch and support us. 

Then once all the tai chi guys went and performed we moved sections and started lining up. Master Gou told us at school that he would try to make it to the tournament. When we changed sections Master Guo showed up with his family and Big Mac. I said 'hi' to Master and felt more confident. Clement and I were first to do our Bajixiaojia. I knew i would not look as nearly as good at Clement because he has been training for the past 3 years, but then again it also calmed my nerves being out there with him rather than being alone. 

When we got in line i asked Kathy again what do i do about my three forms. She told me the masters split our order up so we all had breaks in between. I was glad to hear that. When Clement and i were called out i heard them call me by my chinese name, Zi Long. When we saluted and walked to our positions i did not feel as nervous as i would when i graded at the academy. MAybe its because i do not know those people out in the stands watching and i care more about what my friends think of my form than them so i was not really nervous. 

After doing the first form i went to get a drink of water. By the time i finished taking a sip, Kathy was telling me that i'm out next. Get a break in between forms...chea right! 

I grabbed my Staff and ran to get back into line. By the time i got in front of the line, they called out my name again. I walked out with another friend, Sheridan who was doing his sword form, Before we both started a judge walked onto the mat and told Sheridan to get off. I saw him walking off and had no idea what was going on. I was not sure if i should stay out on the mat or what but when i looked around, the judges where looking at me like they were waiting. So i started my Staff form. (maybe they didn't want two foreigners with weapons swinging them around too close to each other?) 

I practiced my form hundreds of times but i still forgot a part when i was performing on stage. I did not do a '360 kick', aka 'Tornado Kick'. I did not stop but i realized, 'Uh Oh you did not kick!' So i just put it in at another spot in the form and it seemed to go well. When i finished i saw Master Guo and i said 'i forgot the kick, No good!'  He laughed and said "very good very good." Then after i got another drink KAthy called me again to get ready to do my WingChun. 

Now the all of the forms before my third form were all Mantis, Baji, and Shaolin. I did not see one WingChun form. Master told us all before we began to train for the competition that WingChun was not allowed in the Tournament. He said its 'not pretty' and the judges look for more acrobatic and artistic forms rather than a form like wingchun because it is all fighting moves. It does not look "pretty". I asked Master if i could try a Wingchun form and he said yes but i would not get a good score. Well i practiced and practiced to make the form look as sharp and powerful as i could. Right before i went out to do my third wingchun form all hand moves which i do not even move my feet at ALL, Master Sun from our school performed his amazing Spear form with flips and jumps all over the place. I felt a little stupid going out there stand still and doing hand movements only. 

Well, i went out there anyway. Did my form as good i could and didnt get my hopes up to get a good score. MAster Guo told me i did very good and that cheered me up. I at least made my Master proud. Once everyone finished their forms we all headed back to the academy. The Masters told us that we would find out our results tomorrow on Monday. 

The rest of that Sunday i was one of the many who wanted to know what our scores were. I could not sleep Sunday night. I woke up early monday morning hoping we would find out what our scores were. Then i remembered Master Guo did room inspections today. When he came around and saw the room i asked him if he knew my score. He smiled and told me i got two gold and one silver! I was so happy. I was hoping i would get at least one silver. But i got 2 gold and one silver i could not believe it! 

When he left i realized i didnt ask him what the silver was in. That drove me crazy all morning. At line up Master told us we can get our medals during second class. i wanted to know what i got gold in and the silver in! Finally Second class came around. Master had our certificates and medals on one arm. 

He had a translator present us our certificates while we got our medals. I was first and got a silver in Bajixiaojia. I knew clement would beat me so i did not mind. I got Gold in my Staff form and in Wingchun. I was so happy with that because Master told me my staff form needed a lot of work when i signed up to do that form. So i knew all the training and practicing my forms paid off for my gold medals. 

Clement and i both got two gold and one silver. Oran got one gold and one silver and Steffan got one gold in his Tai Chi form. Master was very happy that all of us got medals in our forms. The other classes did well too. Everyone got a medal. Silver was the lowest anyone got. The hard work is not over yet. Now i need to get a medal in the next competition so i can achieve a "Masters certificate". If i get two gold medals, one in each tournament, i can get a Master Ranking of level 4. If i get a silver i will be level 3. There are 9 levels total. some of the masters here are only level 5. My master is level 8, the highest out of all the masters here. Today the training did not stop. Even after class i did extra form training to get ready for the next tournament in only 2 weeks. Wish me LUCK!



-Scott